For it’s 10th edition The Fife Jazz Festival offers menu of delights from musicians who have headlined past Festivals, new comers as well as rising stars. The musical palate will please all ears and feet – from gypsy swing to electric blues rock; from exotic flavours of Balkan dances to modern jazz with hip-hop; traditional Dixieland jazz to cinematic sounds, from gospel to a strictly-for-dancing
swing ballroom extravaganza. The Festival takes place in concert halls and hotels across the Kingdom from Thursday 11th to Sunday 14th February. Concerts will take place in Cupar, Dunfermline, Freuchie, Glenrothes, Kinghorn, Kirkcaldy, St Andrews and St Michaels. Making a return engagement due to popular demand, jazz legend Chris Barber and blues star Maggie Bell will deliver stellar performances. Apart from Wynton Marsalis, there's no-one playing classic jazz at the level of The Big Chris Barber Band: music of the greatest quality, ranging from New Orleans to blues to late 1920’s Ellington, in the Adam Smith Theatre, Kirkcaldy on Friday 12th February. Carnegie Hall will host the Scot’s Queen of Blues, Maggie Bell, with a handpicked band of top blues musicians. Her amazing voice has taken her from Maryhill in Glasgow to the stage of Madison Square Garden. She sung with Rod Stewart, AC/DC and David Bowie among many. Performing in Dunfermline on Thursday 11th February. Making her Fife debut, the magnificent gospel legend, Naomi Shelton, comes to Fife to enchant the audience with her raw, straight from the heart vocals. Born in Alabama but living for many years in Brooklyn, she’s been in the business of singing sanctified soul for 50 years. Performing with The Gospel Queens at Carnegie Hall in Dunfermline on Saturday 13th and The Byre Theatre, St Andrews on Sunday 14th February. Fife artists make up a major part of the Festival. Local musicians include Fife’s very own BBC Big Band drummer Tom Gordon who guests with Ugly Bug Ragtime Band, Fife Youth Jazz Orchestra, Inverkeithing Big Band led by Fife maestro Margaret Douglass. St Andrews University jazzman Richard Ingham presents his own band Sweetness and Charm at The Byre, while Fife blues band Lights Out By Nine will open the Maggie Bell’s show in Dunfermline. Exotic rhythms make their way to the Festival courtesy of Rose Room’s Gypsy jazz and Moishe’s Bagel oriental melody. Seonaid Aitken’s swing-gypsy band presents, especially for the Festival, an enhanced line-up featuring the Capella String Quartet and the sensational swinging saxophonist Konrad Wiszniewski; whilst Moishe’s Bagel deliver rip-roaring, foot-stomping music full of the exotic flavours of Balkan dances, klezmer weddings, and all things Eastern European and Middle Eastern. Young award winning pianist Fergus McCreadie, who we tip to be one of the greatest Scottish stars in the future, makes his way to Byre Theatre on Friday 12th; plus jazz meet hip-hop, breakcore and metal thanks to the critically acclaimed Scottish ensemble HLK Trio. Other highlights include the most entertaining Scottish Dixieland band Batchelors Of Jazz, a blues double header at Cupar, plus two special events for Valentines – the hugely popular “Big Dance” in the Rothes Hall on Saturday 13th February and a musical movie entertainment – “Battle of the Sexes” in Adam Smith Theatre on Sunday 14th February.
